Wind of Another Color
by Blackfire 18
Summary: Vidia, punished for nearly causing the collapse of spring, is set to the task of capturing the rampaging Sprinting Thistles. Tinkerbell wants to help, but Vidia refuses her. Queen Clarion is surprised by news of Vidia's sudden success. Something's amiss.


**Wind of Another Color**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tinkerbell or any of the characters there within, they are property of Disney. Not making any profit off this, etc.**

The sun was beginning to set over a pristine, green meadow nestled in a valley of rolling hills and majestic oaks. Its falling rays cast a vibrant array of rich color through the clouds and gently rustling leaves. This time of day would set even the most reserved light fairy to twittering with glee. Cotton seeds were wafting lightly to the whim of the breeze and birds chirped softly to each other as a prelude to the crickets' approaching symphony.

Everything was peaceful and serene; down to the last blade of grass.

Suddenly, a tightly wound tuft of weeds rose up above its sisters and sprinted wildly through the green sea, followed by an abrupt, prolonged scream.

Vidia was shrieking.

But that didn't seem to help matters a single bit.

Neither did kicking and rolling in the dirt as the dizzying blades of grass flashed a mesh of greenwork to either side of her heaving chest. Gripping tightly with both hands to a reed twine, the fast-flying fairy tried her hardest to subdue the lassoed Sprinting Thistle back to Needlepoint Meadows.

The method Vidia was using was perhaps the most inefficient for her inherent prowess: Her delicate hands were full wrestling with rough twine to produce a proper wind, her heels weren't sharp enough to gain purchase as she scrabbled through the dirt, and her backside was getting thoroughly shredded by stray shards of rock. But Vidia could think of no better way to capture Sprinting Thistles.

The troublesome weeds were wickedly fast, but Vidia was faster.

Green rushed by when the fairy spotted a particularly thick stem of grass. She threw herself toward it and whipped her end of the lasso into a knot. Vidia had already spun a violent gale before the thistle could fall broadside and the clump of prickles, snapped free of its tether, was hurled high into the sky toward Needlepoint Meadows.

Vidia dropped back to the earth, panting, just as another two Sprinting Thistles rushed past. The fairy pounded her fists on the ground with a frustrated screech. The thistles seemed to multiply by three in the field for every one she returned home. She was never going to get all the horrid weeds back to their meadow.

The argument above Springtime Square came rushing back to Vidia as Queen Clarion's imperial, golden iridescence came to light the younger fairy's guilty features.

_It seems to me that your fast-flying talent is well suited to chasing down each and every one of the thistles. _

_Me?_

_Yes. And I expect them all to be returned to Needlepoint Meadow as soon as possible._

_But that could take forever!_

_Then I suggest you get started._

Vidia exhaled again with a scrub at her dirty, sweat-streaked forehead, but this sigh was more tired than frustrated.

She drew her ice blue eyes to the sky and saw the cotton seeds drift by. Vidia snorted in disgust. If she didn't have her hands in the dirt, she would be conducting an opus of breezes and updrafts to make those seeds dance. Her fellow fast-flyers simply did not grasp the finer arts and technical merits of a perfectly crafted wind. And she would have appreciated the cool air rushing over her fevered brow.

Vidia grunted as she pushed herself back up to her feet and untied the bit of twine she had left from the last cast. It should do for one more round up. The fairy looped the braid over her shoulder and tiredly took to the air, flying low over the canopy of the grass in search for her next quarry.

She could feel the eyes of the other fairies on her back; watching her toil, approving of her punishment…laughing. This disgrace was one many a fairy felt Vidia had been due, especially since she had been so unfair to Tinkerbell.

Vidia clenched her fists.

The queen may have ordered her to the task, but it was Tinkerbell who had betrayed Vidia to it. The fairies of Pixie Hollow were annoying enough, but the newest addition to their ranks was in a class of her own.

And at the moment, there wasn't a creature alive that Vidia reviled more than Tinkerbell.

In a purple streak, Vidia was in pursuit of another Sprinting Thistle as she threw her twine to loop the weed about the middle. The fairy grit her teeth as her already sore bottom met yet again with the hard, uneven ground.

Unfortunately, the twine had frayed from the last thistle capture and it split just as this thistle reached its peak speed.

Vidia was sent spiraling for several winglengths, arm over leg, through the dirt. She came to rest at last facedown, too tired and aching to move. Though her body was still, her mind was full of fury at this injustice. Oh may the North Winds have mercy if she ever saw Tinkerbell again—

"Vidia?"

The dark-haired fairy's eyes snapped open as she pushed herself up, twisting to find the owner of the voice. The green of a tinker's uniform assaulted Vidia's eyes. Her eyes rolled back into her head.

_No. Not her._

"Hi Vidia. How, uh, how are things going?" Tinkerbell held something rather large and precarious behind her back and Vidia didn't have a mind to ask what the young fairy planned for it. She stood up and dusted her tattered clothes with ill effect. "Pretty well?"

"Just. Peachy." Vidia spat through her teeth and made to walk around the other fairy, but Tinkerbell was quick to jump in her path. Vidia started at the subordinate action and felt her anger rising again despite her fatigue.

"Hey, so I've been thinking." Tinkerbell said all in a rush. "This whole Sprinting Thistle thing is still, you know, partly my fault and I felt bad you're doing all the work, so I sorta built this thingamajig that might help us gather up the—" Vidia's eyes flashed wide open.

"Us? No. I'm not doing anything with you." Vidia said coldly and brushed past the tinker.

"But I—I want to help y—"

"I don't need your help." Vidia continued to walk down the small path.

"Vidia, I know you can do this on your own," Tinkerbell gave a small laugh, but she could not disguise the twinge of hurt that laced it, "I just thought if we worked together, you'd be done that much sooner."

Vidia paused and Tinkerbell's wings flitted hopefully. Emboldened, Tinkerbell charged onward.

"Can we start over? We didn't exactly get off on the right foot. I just know we can be great friends. Let's catch these weeds then get to know each other over some tea and fig-pudding. Whaddya say?" Tinkerbell stared at the violet back and raven hair, on tenterhooks for the other fairy's response.

"Let me make something perfectly straight." Vidia turned back to face the fairy in green. "I don't need help. I don't need friends. I don't need you."

Tinkerbell's wings drooped with every passing sentence as Vidia rigidly advanced on her. The tinker's small hands twisted at the device in her hands and she bit her lip as Vidia drew up to tower over her.

"And I don't care to ever see you again for as long as I live."

The silence following the cruel statement was absolute. Even the birds had gone quiet.

Tinkerbell found she could not meet Vidia's eyes.

"O-Oh. Okay then." The tinker fairy stuttered, her voice thick with emotion from the verbal lashing. "I'll just…just leave this h-here then." Tinkerbell tenderly placed the apparatus at Vidia's feet then wrung her empty hands. "Goodbye, Vidia."

Vidia's angry ice blue eyes followed the tinker as she lifted into the sky, rubbing at her eyes.

The fairy looked back at the device on the ground, a dangerous looking piece of equipment laden with heavy twigs, hooks and weights that would sooner break a limb than capture a galloping thistle, and turned her nose up at it.

She was better off using her own process.

* * *

After a succession of failures left Vidia with a sore tailbone and numerous rashes, the aching fairy was feeling more open to ideas.

Vidia found her way back to the place she had left Tinkerbell's contraption and she picked it up. It was heavy.

Glancing around, the fairy saw a folded sheet of white. She put down the gadget in favor of the sheet, only to discover a spider web as it unfurled before her. A spider's web and at the same time, not a spider's web. The twine wasn't sticky like a web, but its design would make even the best cobweb spinner jealous. On the web's ends were heavy stones in a strategic order. Weights. Vidia realized. But for what?

Vidia put down the webbing to return to the halfmoon device on a stick.

The item looked more like a weapon than a tool for capture, but the fairy felt she would rather spend a second to study a supposedly helpful contraption than launch back into thistle wrangling.

The weapon, er, device was foreign to say the least. A hearty, upright twig met the base of a twisted, elastic reed; bent back double over itself to create tension. On the farthest edge of the bent reed extended a fat pair of leaves, woven together for strength and durability, attached to another two twigs to create a mat, or holding place for something. Just as Vidia pondered the use of the tensioned reed and mat, her other hand came up to hold the base (it really was quite heavy) when the weapon snapped wildly in Vidia's hands.

She shrieked and dropped it, diving for cover behind a grass stalk.

When she dared glance around the stem again, she discovered the weapon had stretched out like the elbow of a coiled arm. The tension had been released.

What in the name of the Second Star was Tinkerbell thinking creating something so dangerous? One of Vidia's wings might have been damaged and where would that have left her? Why, if she ever heard even a whispered _word_ about that fairy again, she would—

Vidia's blue eyes shot open.

She looked between the weighted-web sheet and the contraption, putting the equation together. She inhaled sharply.

The web was a net. The tension arm was a launching device for the net.

And suddenly Vidia smiled.

Several moments later, the fast-flying fairy had settled on her stomach on a high root of the Home Tree that overlooked the grassy field. She was lying in wait.

Her blue eyes scanning the grasses for movement, she contained her sudden excitement when three Sprinting Thistles charged in a general direction toward each other.

Vidia's breath came sharp and fast as she watched the progression, she inched and nudged the launcher to a predicted spot where the thistles would convene and pulled the trigger. The launcher jarred sharply into her shoulder, but Vidia was too absorbed with the flying net as it branched outwards—an ominous circle spreading in the moonlight—before falling on her quarry.

A chirrup of glee escaped the fast flying fairy as the shot fell true and the three sprinting thistles struggled beneath the constricting tangles and weight of the net.

Vidia swooped down over the webbing, swiftly scooping weights into her arms before rising into the sky, all of the thistles (including a fourth!) rose with her. They were heavy, but Vidia was too excited to notice as she triumphantly returned the weeds to their home on Needlepoint Meadows.

Her impossible task had suddenly been made more promising.

* * *

Vidia collapsed onto her bed, utterly exhausted and painfully sore. She had showered the dirt and grime away but her clothes had been destroyed in the rough and tussle with the thistles. Well, she would worry about clothing and fast-flying duties in another sun or two.

Her spine cricked and her muscles screamed at the slightest movement.

Make that next season…

She had spent the entirety of her evening rounding up the last of the thistles with the launching device. The machine had made her task ridiculously easier and consequently she expressly finished the chore with, ahem, flying colors. The net had gotten pretty shredded by the end, but it held up for the duration of its purpose and left Vidia a little less bruised than she would have been otherwise.

Still, many of her limbs throbbed and she exhaled a heavy sigh. She wasn't moving from this bed until the colors of the leaves changed and not a moment before.

Vidia curled up and prepared to hibernate her pains away when a knock sounded at her door. She made a low, angry growl for the interruption. She had just arranged herself where she ached least and she somehow doubted she would find this position again.

The fairy curled up tighter, hoping the interloper would just leave, but the persistent knock came again and Vidia reluctantly pressed herself up off her cozy bed to answer the caller.

She didn't care if Viola had come to summon her to the queen, Vidia was already preparing a particularly wing-curling speech for the uninvited guest and tensing to slam the door right after—

All thoughts of reprimands evaporated on the spot when Vidia opened the door.

Queen Clarion herself hovered before her doorway. Her imperial golden glow cast light even to the darkest corners of Vidia's residence.

Vidia's wings slumped down her back as her mouth opened.

The queen's eyebrow raised a fraction as a soft smile came to her lips.

"Good evening, Vidia." She gestured elegantly outside of Vidia's living quarters to the twilight air. "Would you care to join me for a nighttime wing?"

The queen's invitation was warm enough, but there was a hidden note that the request was not a suggestion. The queen did not make regular visits to fairies and certainly not in the dead of night. This unusual circumstance was either gravely significant or terribly critical that it could not wait until morning. Despite the roll of her stomach, the dark-haired fairy tried to delay the inevitable.

"I'd love to, your majesty," the fairy said with all sweetness and no substance, "but I just finished capturing every last rampant Sprinting Thistle and I'm quite tir—"

"I'm aware." Queen Clarion said simply. It was true, the queen had commanded she be roused the instant Vidia completed her task, no matter the time of day. Or night. But Clarion had expected to be alerted several weeks after the punishment had been assigned and her shock at this premature achievement brought her, amazed and curious, to Vidia's doorstep.

The queen pivoted slightly to the night.

"I must insist."

Vidia did not miss the delicate implication in Her Majesty's tone and she obediently stepped over the threshold and shut the door behind her; already missing the comfort of her bed.

Queen Clarion took the lead as she drifted forward into the air and Vidia silently followed. The stillness of the night was heavy around the fairy's ears, but she did not dare break it.

Vidia knew exactly why the queen had come. What unnerved Vidia was Queen Clarion's neglect of normal protocol. Had the queen a request to see a fairy, she would send a summons fairy carrying a summons notice—and the summons usually meant trouble.

The fact that the queen had come in person, meant Vidia was about to get the lashing of a lifetime. And fairies lived a long time.

Queen Clarion seemed to be flying with a specific end in mind, but the path was by no means linear, and Vidia was growing more edgy as one lazy turn became another, and another. She vaguely wondered if this prolonged silence was part of her subsequent punishment; it was certainly tortuous enough.

They were drifting higher and higher into the night sky, straying into the cross seasons of spring and winter.

At last, the queen chose a wide, fanned mushroom high on a tree as their place of rest. She gracefully sat on the natural shelf's edge and she motioned that Vidia join her. The fairy settled beside her queen, squinting at the tenderness as she rested her weight back; she slouched forward on her arms to keep some of the pressure off.

And still the queen did not break the silence.

Vidia alternately bit her lip and dug her nails into the mushroom, unwilling to breach the quiet. She contemplated a hasty exit, but it would only delay the inevitable, and any such retreat now would surely insult Her Highness. Under normal circumstance, Vidia would rather irritate Clarion by a quick getaway than be lectured, but she was in trouble enough.

The queen's eyes flickered to her companion, monitoring the young fairies tense shoulders, before rising up to the black sky.

"It's a beautiful evening."

Vidia hummed a noncommittal noise as she stared at the forest floor far below. There was a pause.

"I've missed evenings like these; free of royal obligations to enjoy a crisp spring night."

"Sacrificing sleep." Vidia muttered crankily. Clarion's monarch wings fluttered once as her cerulean eyes considered the fast-flying fairy. Vidia's half-lidded eyes were impatient and drowsy and her wingtips lay far back on the mushroom. Thoughtful discussion was not welcomed it seemed. So be it.

"I am very surprised at your astounding accomplishment with the Sprinting Thistles." Queen Clarion began conversationally, her voice filled with quiet amazement. "It would appear your talents widely surpass my expectations. I am very impressed." Her brilliant blue gaze settled on Vidia. "To capture every last Sprinting Thistle led into Springtime Square in the span of mere days without aid beyond your talents?"

Vidia nibbled on her lower lip. There wasn't a being alive that could lie to the Fairy Queen—not even the tiniest white lie. Vidia hated to admit that she would ever accept the aid of others and now her best defense under that penetrating blue gaze was silence.

"Remarkable." The queen went on in the silence and Vidia cringed, battling the urge to correct her. "Perhaps we will have to add a thistle watch to your regular duties, as you are so skilled in their apprehension."

"I had help." Vidia ground out, unable to allow Her Majesty to believe a fallacy and unwilling to add more work to her already full schedule.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I had help." The younger fairy repeated more clearly. There was a longer pause that set Vidia's chest on fire. She tore her nails into the mushroom's flesh.

"I see." Vidia found she could breathe again when the queen's eyes looked back out over the valley. "And did you thank those who assisted you?"

Vidia was silent again.

"I believe," Queen Clarion said slowly, "the swift detainment of those thistles this night was a magic beyond what fairies are capable of, but perhaps not when magic is combined with machine." Vidia could hear the queen's soft smile. "And our machine crafters are the clever tinker fairies."

Vidia's teeth ground behind her pursed lips.

"When the thistles came to Springtime Square, Tinkerbell took the brunt of the blame." The queen saw Vidia's shoulders twitch; a sensitive topic had been breached. "And despite the…illuminations above the Square, she still felt responsible for the mayhem those weeds wrecked. The repairs were made in time and Spring came on schedule." The light breeze around Clarion was suddenly tempered with caution, but she continued nonetheless. "Then Tinkerbell came to me, entreating that she was accountable for the thistles damage and she implored she assist you in your task."

Vidia murmured something unfavorable under her breath that the queen chose to ignore.

"I asked after her preoccupation with the notion and she simply said: So we can be friends."

"I don't need friends." Vidia retorted angrily, uncaring how rude the sentiment was. An unexplained updraft ruffled the queen's gown. "She had it coming, trying to perverse her talent like that."

"Why would you have encouraged Tinkerbell to do such a thing?"

"She needed to fail to know her place!" Vidia burst angrily, as though this were the most obvious solution in the world. "The destruction of Springtime Square was necessary for her to understand her disruption to nature. Fairies should know better than to deny their talent, even if it is being a lowly tinker fairy."

Queen Clarion blinked as her fair hair settled after a particularly nasty gust of wind.

"You were trying to teach her a lesson? Why did it have to be so…vicious?"

"She's too thick for a light touch. Too stubborn." Vidia snapped.

The queen exhaled an afflicted sigh.

"I can't say I'm not disappointed." The queen folded her hands on her lap. "Tinkerbell looks up to you, yet you've been determined to distance yourself from her as you do with all the other members of my court. What about her so displeases you?"

Vidia's wings fluttered violently.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Oh?" But Vidia had turned so the queen could only see a black ponytail. Queen Clarion studied the other fairy a moment; her slender, agile form, hunched in pain from a day's hard labor—the queen was surprised Vidia had yet to retreat in quick fashion. But Vidia had always been more conversational when no one else was around.

Queen Clarion smiled suddenly.

"I remember a fairy who came to my court on an evening summer's breeze, dressed only in the down of a peregrine falcon. I knew instantly the talent of this fairy before I even saw her." Vidia's blue eyes tried to look back over her shoulder without turning her head. "But it was not my place to declare, for only a fairy can decide what talent guild to join; what truly guides their hearts.

"I came before her, a beautiful young fairy filled with vitality and a thirst to prove herself—a desire to set herself apart—a yearning to be unique. I raised her wings and reached to take her hand. Flying came so naturally to her and I was certain of my premonition then.

"But the talent I believed she belonged to did not call to her right away. She tried lily and light, even robin egg before coming to wind. I recall what happened as clearly as daybreak. Her small hands cupping instinctively around the funnel, gentle yet certain, and the funnel became a stream of perfectly swirling air." The queen had lost herself to the memory so that she missed Vidia's quizzical blue eye watching her. "Then the light came. I had never seen a calling shine so brightly in all my years. None of my court had.

"This fairy," the queen's eyes sparkled as Vidia turned back to look fully at her queen, "was destined for greatness. And I had every wish to nurture her gift. Hers was a true rare talent. For every thousand fairies there may be a single that is fast-flying and their role is crucial to the balance of nature."

A barely concealed smile of pride was threatening to expose itself about the corners of Vidia's lips.

"I had not felt that magnitude of importance since your birth in any other fairy…" the queen's eyes flickered to Vidia. "Until Tinkerbell."

Vidia's almost genuine smile disappeared in a flash. The fast-flying fairy was suddenly hovering before the surprised queen, her expression dour and the winds violent.

"Well, now that I know the big secret between talented and untalented comparisons, enjoy your new pet favorite. See if I care." Vidia said nastily before she was flying as fast as the winds could carry her.

Something heavy snapped around Vidia's wings and the fairy jerked backward at the sudden jolt. The place where her wings met her back ached with the shock. She had not hit anything, she was simply standing still in the air.

Before she could piece together what had happened, Queen Clarion appeared before her in a golden flash of pixie dust; her right hand pinched the fore and middle fingers to her thumb as though plucking something invisible from the sky. Her expression was hard.

Vidia instantly realized it had been the queen who seized her from escape, for any creature sprinkled in pixie dust yielded to the queen's call. What was worse, Queen Clarion did not use her power against her fairies unless she deemed it absolutely necessary. Or unless she was very upset.

"Hear me, Vidia, for I will only say this once." The queen's voice rang through the forest before lowering. "I cannot force you to make amends with Tinkerbell, nor encourage manners in thanking one for help when it is offered, but I will say this: You are unique. You were destined for great things and I expect great things from you. But true greatness comes not from me and my belief, but from the respect and admiration of your peers." Her voice lowered. "Tinkerbell is not your enemy." The pressure around Vidia's wings released as Queen Clarion opened her fingers. Freed, Vidia sustained herself in the dark sky, too surprised to think of withdrawing, and quietly listened to the queen's soft words. "And though you may renounce it, you are as dear to my heart now as the day you were born. No fairy here is like you, Vidia, and no other could ever take your place. Never forget."

The two fairies hovered lightly in the air, considering each other; neither speaking. Vidia's eyes flickered between the two cerulean blue eyes that watched her, unsure. Queen Clarion's smile was small, but sincere. Vidia hesitated. But when the queen's smile grew and her imperial crown tilted back with her head, gold flashed around the purple-clothed fairy and the moment shattered.

Vidia placed a hand over her heart.

"Wow, I'm really choked up," She said insincerely, playing off the brush of tenderness with her usual dripping sarcasm, "I think I may be sick. Well, I'm quite tired after capturing _every last_ Sprinting Thistle in Springtime Square…"

Vidia gave Queen Clarion a mock salute, just as the queen added a final rejoinder.

"You might have been chasing thistles all spring." The queen's tinkling laughter made the dark-haired fairy pause in her departure and frown. "I'm pleased two brilliant young minds can efficiently solve a problem despite their differences. Be grateful your bruises will heal before the season ends." Queen Clarion had turned and began to descend back to Pixie Hollow. "I hope you will remember this night should Tinkerbell ever need your help."

Silence followed the queen's statement. Vidia's wings quivered uncertainly. There had been something definitive about the queen's tone.

"Good evening, Vidia."

And before Vidia could speak the last word, Queen Clarion gradually dissolved into shimmering golden pixie dust that split into three orbs and shot off in different directions.

Vidia's ice blue eyes rolled up into her head as she clicked her tongue disapprovingly. She would have denied the smile she now wore had anyone questioned after it.

The fast-flying fairy spiraled into a dive of her own back to her home within the boughs of the sour plum tree.

* * *

The next morning, Tinkerbell rose with the sun and dressed to head down to the tinker workshop. Fairy Mary expected her early that morning and the tinker overseer didn't like to be kept waiting.

But as the tinker fairy opened her door, a surprise greeted her eyes.

The projectile device she had built specifically for Vidia was laid on her step; the net folded neatly beside it.

Tinkerbell picked up the contraption and discovered a small note attached. In looped and scrawled letters were written only two words.

_It works._

The tinker fairy's eyes looked up to the sky, almost ice blue in color that morning, with a grin stretched from ear to ear.

* * *

**Author's Note: Finally got this baby posted. Check it out! My first K rated story ever. That's the mouse ears for you. I remember seeing the promotional commercials on the Disney Channel and rolling my eyes, thinking I'm never going to watch Tinkerbell. But after a series of unlikely events, I came to see it and instantly fell in love with the characters. Vidia and Queen Clarion are easily my favorites--though Tinkerbell was fun too, she just isn't as spritely as she was in Peter Pan. I liked her being feisty and jealous, now she's a smidge too nice.**

**I got caught up trying to be creative in Tinkerbell's thistle-capturing machine, even researching how them cowboys rounded up cows, and the net-catapult was the best (already invented invention) I could come up with. Either that or I was looking to never publish this story! ^^; I'm kinda bummed I couldn't figure something better out, involving lost things and whatnot, but I rather like sharpshootin' Vidia.**

**I chose the Peregrine Falcon as Vidia's arrival "garb" because that bird is supposedly the fastest in the world--reaching speeds of over 200 mph in a dive. Now how a baby's laugh got into those feathers is a wild and hair raising tale in itself.**

**Queen Clarion's dialogue with Vidia was also a cause for hang-ups. I wanted her to be regal but approachable and, for this quiet moment with Vidia, even a little less queeny. I absolutely loved the dynamic between these two in the movie, however brief. And I hope to see more of them in the future flicks. At any rate, I hope I pulled the queen off right.**

**Whew! It was so lovely doing a one-shot again, but my one-shots always come in pairs and I've already got another idea lined up. Possibly a third as well. I dunno what it was about this movie that so enthralled me; the music, the colors, the fantasy. It's just fun!**

**Anywho, I hope everyone who read enjoyed this little post Tinkerbell story. Please leave a review!**

**Blackfire 18**


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